Lemon Squares with Expressive Food Coloring!

Now that the weather has (barely) chilled enough to bake, we have been!

Lemon Squares      Crust: 2 cups flour ⅔ cup powdered sugar 1 cup butter, softened Heat oven to 350°. Grease a 9"x13" pan.* (We recommend lining the pan with parchment paper or foil first.) Mix butter, flour, and sugar together until crumbly. Press into the pan and bake until light brown, about 18-20 minutes. Make the filling while the crust bakes.      Filling: 4 eggs 2 cups sugar ¼ cup flour ½ tsp baking powder ⅓ cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice Grated rind of the lemons you juiced 2 tbsp powdered sugar Mix all dry ingredients except powdered sugar. Whisk in the eggs and beat well. Then stir in the lemon juice and rind. Pour over the hot crust and bake until set, about 20 minutes. When cooled, sprinkle with powdered sugar. You can make the powdered sugar look much nicer if you sprinkle it through a sifter. *The original recipe claims you can do this in an ungreased pan, but I have always had rotten luck with that. Note: If halving this recipe, use an 8" square pan or a 9" round. Source: Harris-Teeter powdered sugar label

Summer is finally coming to an end, even in Texas. Temperatures are dropping, and people's yard decorations are changing. We are seeing the first warning signs of Christmas on some houses, while other people still have their light-up inflatable zombies and artificial spiderwebs out. 

With the recent chills, the house has been warmer than the outdoors on a few recent nights (with the heater still off of course). But even though it's still a bit stuffy indoors, I could wait no longer. It's time to take the oven out of rest.

The chilly weather means we can now enjoy the flavors of summer. Isn't the idea of summer better without the sweltering reality? So, a lot of people have been getting lemon squares. Because I wanted everyone to know they came from me, I couldn't resist dyeing them. If I wanted to excuse myself for turquoise dye, the lemon squares were a rather insipid shade of yellow on their own.

I should not have made a pink crust underneath my 1990s-colored lemon filling. Pink and turquoise go together well, but not when the colors bleed together in the middle. You can see what they should have been, and also what they were not. So, these only went to good friends who know me well enough.

If you didn't know this was lemon, what flavor do you think it should be?

Everyone else got the pink squares. Those were still festively tinted, but they look normal enough for people who only know my public face.

Also, you should definitely juice your own lemons into this recipe and also grate in the rind. It makes them so much better.